Following Friday's announcement that Apple would discontinue both iPhoto and Aperture in favor of OS X Yosemite's new Photos app, software giant Adobe chimed in to tout its "rich roadmap" for Lightroom -- Aperture's main competitor -- and to reiterate the company's commitment to Apple-based photographers.

"Put simply we're doubling down on our investments in Lightroom and the new Creative Cloud Photography plan and you can expect to see a rich roadmap of rapid innovation for desktop, web and device workflows in the coming weeks, months and years," Adobe digital imaging executive Winston Hendrickson said in a blog post. Lightroom, which first saw stable release in 2007, has sapped a number of former Aperture users in recent years as Apple's offering seemed near-abandoned.

Lightroom is available as part of Adobe's Creative Cloud Photography subscription program, which gives users access to the latest versions of Lightroom and Photoshop CC for $9.99 per month. That will represent a steep step up in cost for Aperture users, who have been able to purchase recent copies of the software for just $79.99.

"We also continue to invest actively on the iOS and OSX platforms, and are committed to helping interested iPhoto and Aperture customers migrate to our rich solution across desktop, device and web workflows," Hendrickson added. The company later said that they are working on ways for Aperture users to import their libraries to Lightroom, but provided no further details.

Apple announced Aperture's sunset earlier Friday with a brief statement.

"With the introduction of the new Photos app and iCloud Photo Library, enabling you to safely store all of your photos in iCloud and access them from anywhere, there will be no new development of Aperture," Apple said. "When Photos for OS X ships next year, users will be able to migrate their existing Aperture libraries to Photos for OS X."

Sadly, I subscribed to Adobe's suite a few days ago. It was all because of the uncertainty of Aperture. Apple really left it on the vine to rot and the general feeling from the user community is that Apple stopped updating it.

It's really too bad. I don't like Adobe, and I'm certainly not a fan of its subscription model. For the most part, they are the 800-pound gorilla in the room for the time being.

I'm going to keep a very close eye on what Apple does. I'm getting very deep back into professional photography and I couldn't wait to see what Apple was going to do. I hope they integrate all of Aperture's more "professional" components into iPhoto, including RAW support.

Of course, if Apple zapped all of the Windows CC applications, Microsoft would take it as a shot across the bow and shut down Office for Mac.

I was kidding but then again ... I don't think Office has much pull in the OS X world these days to be honest but what do i know? I'm a graphics guy not a person who needs to do ... wait, what is Office for anyway?

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

I am very disappointed. I am in love with aperture. I don't want to use adobe products.

I assume Aperture will keep working ... I just read in ARS that it doesn't work in Yosemite, which is weird as I have been using it around the clock in Yosemite for the last two weeks without any issues.

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

Ouch ... but .. for Photography pros that's not a big deal, no one is suggestion iPhoto users get it Then again I do want that Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L EF IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens soon and that comes first ...

From Apple ][ - to new Mac Pro I've owned them all.Long on AAPL so biased"Google doesn't sell you anything, Google just sells you!"

Still reeling from this announcement. I wonder why Aperture was not farmed out to another company to continue development in conjunction with Apple. To drop the product is a slap in the face of all professionals who have used it faithfully, hoping that Apple would surprise us all with a Lightroom killer at some point in time. That won't happen now. I've used LR and have not been impressed with the UI nor file management capabilities. A real step back in many aspects.

Ouch ... but .. for Photography pros that's not a big deal, no one is suggestion iPhoto users get it Then again I do want that Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L EF IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens soon and that comes first ...

I've been reading numerous comments from some who expect the new Photos app will incorporate a lot of Aperture's power, rather than being a wimpy iPhoto refresh. I sure hope they're right. Note that Apple didn't say anything about customers having other options and they mentioned migrating to Photos. I think it would be pretty crass of Apple to suggest customers can migrate from Aperture to Photos if the latter will just have iPhoto-level features.

Ouch ... but .. for Photography pros that's not a big deal, no one is suggestion iPhoto users get it Then again I do want that Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L EF IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens soon and that comes first ...

It's not just the cost of the app but the time and effort to migrate a large photo collection and learn a new workflow. I'm pretty sure Phase One lacks many of Aperture's OSX integration features.

I bought my first DSLR about a year ago and did my research into whether I should buy Aperture or Lightroom. If I hadn't done any research, I would have bought Aperture. I wanted to like Aperture. Unfortunately, Lightroom is simply the better product despite all of the nonsense comes with Adobe products.

Apple is now concentrating upon developing a very good eco system for the Macs, iPads and iPhones and future products. This will be the future Apple company. We will all like it, I am sure. The New Photos will be developed and integrated into this eco system. IPhoto and Aperture do not belong there. Remember, Apple is a hardware company and it only makes a few pieces of very good software to make people interested in its products. Adobe is a software company and it will make software for the Mac as well as for Windows.

Adobe loves making software and will continue developing incredible software for professionals. The Creative Cloud is outstanding. Fantastic. I loved Aperture, but I left it half a year ago and I must say, Lightroom is very good indeed. It takes a few hours to get used to, but is not harder than driving various kinds of automobiles.

The Creative Cloud gives you software that does cost a bit, but for persons who need to be at the front, they will need Adobe and they will be very prepared to pay. Without Adobe, the graphical industry would come to a stand-still, without Apple, the world would not be as elegant any more.

Apple and Adobe need each other and I am sure, Adobe will produce software for the Apple eco system and this will be awsome for all of us.

I bought my first DSLR about a year ago and did my research into whether I should buy Aperture or Lightroom. If I hadn't done any research, I would have bought Aperture. I wanted to like Aperture. Unfortunately, Lightroom is simply the better product despite all of the nonsense comes with Adobe products.

Keep dreaming.

What are some of the ways in which you feel Lightroom is a clearly better product?

Frankly, these kinds of moves are one of the things I admire most about Apple. Yes, I know what you're thinking- this move is "bad". But I don't think so- I think this is what lies at the very core of Apple's philosophy. Hear me out:

Apple clearly spent alot of time in building this product, updating it, advertising it, and integrating it. It's an excellent product, and financially, it's a net positive for them. It has a ton of loyal users, including Pros (and myself). Yet, in spite of this, they're willing to axe it, and even help people transition to a competitors product. This may enrage and confuse many. Yet to me, it is clear evidence that Apple has not forgotten what has made them great, and is still willing to make seemingly self-harming moves like this, when it truly believes its in the greater good. And that greater good is FOCUS. Apple, for better or worse, has decided that the baggage of maintaining the software, and making sure it plays well with their rebuilt photos app, is not the best use of their resources- especially when its for a limited user base. They made the calculation that marketing the product, and putting the energy and resources into meaningfully differentiating it from their upcoming photos app, is not in their best interest or that of most consumers. And thus, they answered the "does it deserve to exist" question. And that answer was "no".

On many levels this is a good thing, in that it will give them more incentive into adding some more advanced features to their baked in photos app, that will obviously get constant updates and attention, and that he vast majority of OSX users will benefit from- at no cost. For those with greater needs, Apple has decided that these users have viable options from other software developers. This shows that Apple is still focused on being ultra lean and efficient, and willing to cull its products to remain that way.

Yet, in spite of this, they're willing to axe it, and even help people transition to a competitors product.

Where are people getting the idea that Apple is helping Aperture users transition to a competitor's product? They stated they would help their users transition to the new Photos app. Only ADOBE said they'd help users transition to their own (crappy) product.

What are some of the ways in which you feel Lightroom is a clearly better product?

Simply put, I can get better-looking photographs faster with Lightroom. Aperture lacks really basic functionality like lens correction. There's plugins that'll add functionality like this but they're not as good or well-supported as Lightroom.

My instinct is that people who are willing to pay the price for Lightroom have already made the switch. Aperture has been stagnant and subpar in most areas for a while now. People who don't want to pay that much are probably content with iPhoto or Picasa, or will just keep using Aperture until Photos.app arrives.

I own Lightroom because it works well, and the $10/month PS LR bundle makes it easy to justify, but I'm not a huge fan. I dislike the UI tremendously.

I would have preferred that Apple actually put resources into Aperture back when it was a contest (it hasn't been for some time). I do have high hopes for the new Photos app. If they can build in solid RAW processing and good catalog management while keeping the consumer friendly items like face detection and naming, and mapping, I'd be pretty happy.

Simply put, I can get better-looking photographs faster with Lightroom. Aperture lacks really basic functionality like lens correction. There's plugins that'll add functionality like this but they're not as good or well-supported as Lightroom.

I've seen some examples where some image corrections turn out a bit better in Lightroom. But for me its shortcomings in OSX integration, user interface and workflows drown out the value of these benefits. To me it's a bit like the choice between an Apple computer and a Dell PC configured with more features and a faster processor - on paper the latter makes more sense, but in day to day usage I know I'm happier with the former.